Progressive Labor Party on Race & Racism

Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fights to destroy capitalism and the dictatorship of the capitalist class. We organize workers, soldiers and youth into a revolutionary movement for communism.

Only the dictatorship of the working class — communism — can provide a lasting solution to the disaster that is today’s world for billions of people. This cannot be done through electoral politics, but requires a revolutionary movement and a mass Red Army led by PLP.

Worldwide capitalism, in its relentless drive for profit, inevitably leads to war, fascism, poverty, disease, starvation and environmental destruction. The capitalist class, through its state power — governments, armies, police, schools and culture — maintains a dictatorship over the world’s workers. The capitalist dictatorship supports, and is supported by, the anti-working-class ideologies of racism, sexism, nationalism, individualism and religion.

While the bosses and their mouthpieces claim “communism is dead,” capitalism is the real failure for billions worldwide. Capitalism returned to Russia and China because socialism retained many aspects of the profit system, like wages and privileges. Russia and China did not establish communism.

Communism means working collectively to build a worker-run society. We will abolish work for wages, money and profits. Everyone will share in society’s benefits and burdens.

Communism means abolishing racism and the concept of “race.” Capitalism uses racism to super-exploit black, Latino, Asian and indigenous workers, and to divide the entire working class.

Communism means abolishing the special oppression of women — sexism — and divisive gender roles created by the class society.

Communism means abolishing nations and nationalism. One international working class, one world, one Party.

Communism means that the minds of millions of workers must become free from religion’s false promises, unscientific thinking and poisonous ideology. Communism will triumph when the masses of workers can use the science of dialectical materialism to understand, analyze and change the world to meet their needs and aspirations.

Communism means the Party leads every aspect of society. For this to work, millions of workers — eventually everyone — must become communist organizers. Join Us!

NEWARK, NJ, February 3 — Today, over 20 students, teachers and local workers protested the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Signs such as “Haiti: this is what capitalism looks like” and “200,000 deaths is not natural, It’s Capitalism!” attracted many commuters walking by. Some joined the demonstration, while drivers honked in support. A high school student group called the rally.

NEW YORK CITY, February 14 — This past weekend, members and friends of the PLP from throughout the city met, guided by the slogan of “sharpening up the contradictions” between communism and capitalism.

We started on Friday by taking a collective of students and teachers to see the movie “Valentine’s Day.” This film was a piece of crap but the theater was packed and millions more went to see it over the weekend. So we figured we would too, and try to sharpen up the struggle against the racist, sexist and imperialist ideas the bosses need us to absorb.

Newark Mayor Cory BookerThe bosses want nothing more from their schools and youth organizations than the preparation of the next generation of loyal workers and soldiers. It is a positive development that in the debate world lots of students argue against capitalism. Over the past weeks debate teams have organized picket lines at Senate offices protesting the imperialist invasion of Haiti and also protested Newark Mayor Corey Booker’s opening remarks at a tournament with eighteen letters reading CAPITALISM = POVERTY.

QUEENS, NY — “You know we’re gonna get screwed on this,” said the PLP’er. His coworker and CHALLENGE reader shrugged. At today’s briefing (the meeting at the beginning of a shift) the boss tried to force extra work onto a group including the PLP’er and several CHALLENGE readers. They would have to work a flight, and fuel vehicles.

One worker objected to the group having to do two jobs at the same time. Not surprisingly, the supervisor ignored the criticism since without class struggle he controls everything and doesn’t have to listen to a word we say. Furthermore, the white boss’s arrogance takes on a racist character as he ignores the input of the mainly black and Latino workers.

January 19th was the deadline for state grant applications under Obama’s “Race to the Top” (RttT) program. The program’s goal is to restructure the public education system on a national scale, by bribing states to bust teachers’ unions, centralize and privatize public education. At least eleven states (including CA, NY, MA, IL, and TN) are changing their state laws to be eligible for tiny amounts of grant money ($4-5 billion to be distributed nationwide over the next four years, about $110 per school-age student per year. This top-down policy change, which attacks the working class and centralizes the power of the ruling class, is a clear example of how fascism is developing in this country.

In the factory at lunch I asked my friend “what do you think is the reason for all these recalls?” He answered: “It’s probably because the factories where the recalled parts are made run as fast and dangerous as the one we work in.”

Today a group of black female lab workers at a hospital here went on the offensive and demanded that the hospital bosses hire more workers. A meeting was arranged between the supervisor and the 1199 SEIU union delegate, who suggested that everyone should attend the meeting, since they all work in the department together. Perhaps unknowingly, the union delegate illustrated that, whatever the fight, when workers are united victory is possible. In this case, the reform fight was for more workers and not the revolutionary fight for communism. This fight also exposes the racist and sexist nature of the system. Black women are the most exploited section of the working class in the U.S., where being overworked with too little staff and paid very low wages is common.

Questions have arisen over the migrant workers’ revolt in the small Italian town of Rosarno, Calabria. The NY Times (1/12) suggested that the reason for the violence was locals and immigrants competing for the fruit harvesting jobs, although immigrants had worked in the fields for years. Fifty people were injured, cars burned and windows smashed. The major Italian news agency claimed “racism and poor conditions fueled violence,” ignoring not only Rosarno’s anti-racism demonstration after the conflict, but also the national anti-racism demonstration of 250,000 held in Rome last October.2 Once again, the bosses’ media didn’t dig below the surface.

The unemployment figures coming out of Washington are as a phony as a three-dollar bill. By reporting that the unemployment rate went “down” in January to 9.7% from the previous month’s 10%, the Obama administration is trying to spread the notion that the great recession is receding. Bullshit! No matter which way capitalism twists the figures, unemployment and underemployment is the highest since the Great Depression. Consider the following:

• Firstly, when taking into account “discouraged” workers who’ve given up looking for non-existent jobs (not counted in the phony 9.7% statistic), plus part-timers who can’t find full-time jobs (also not counted), the actual rate is 21.2%. (Shadowstats.com) In fact, one reason for the “lower” 9.7% rate is that more workers stopped looking for jobs, conveniently reducing the number the government counts as unemployed.

The main change since our last visit to Israel/Palestine over a year ago has been the intensification of racist violence by Israel bosses against Palestinians. On 12/27/08, Israel swooped down on the tiny occupied Gaza strip, killed 1,440 people, including about 430 women and children, wounded 5,000 and left 50,000 homeless. It’s been well-documented that the Israeli military used banned weapons, such as white phosphorous, and targeted civilians who had nowhere to flee.